Metropolis of Mytiline

The Holy Metropolis of Mytiline, Eressos and Plomariou[1] (Gr. Μυτιλήνης, Ερεσσού και Πλωμαρίου) is part of the Church of Greece. The Metropolis of Mytiline, Eressos and Plomariou covers the area of the island of Lesbos in the northeastern Aegean Sea. The metropolis is one of the metropolises of the New Lands in Greece that are within the jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople but de facto are administered for practical reasons as part of the Church of Greece under an agreement between the churches of Athens and Constantinople. [1]

Metropolitan

Past hierarchs

History

Lesbos, the area of the metropolis, was colonized by Hellenic peoples in pre-Christian times and through the centuries became part of the empires of Alexander, the Ptolemies, and the Romans. The Apostle Paul visited the island in 52 AD, bringing Christianity. During the periods of Roman and Eastern Roman times the island was used as a place of exile and was subject to frequent attacks.

After the island was conquered by Sultan Mehmet II in 1462 the population was decimated and economic and cultural life came to a halt bringing a period where the monasteries and churches became the intellectual centers of the island life. During the nineteenth century, Greek liberation movements arose that eventually resulted in the island becoming part of Greece in 1923. [2]

The island of Lesbos is separated from the Turkish mainland by a narrow channel of the Mediterranean. The town of Mutiline on Lesbos is most famous for an original icon painted by St. Luke the Evangelist and it is enshrined in the village and the Church of Agiassos. Mytiline is also famous for housing the relics of St. Theodore of Byzantium and more recently the Ss. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene. It also has taken on a greater significance for housing the Mantamados icon, one of only two "statue" icons in Orthodoxy and extremally wonder-working for the army, military and air-force.